Aren't You Proud of Me?
by theblondeknight45
Summary: From one traitor to another, Numbuh 12 wants to know how Numbuh 274 feels about her actions in handing over the Code Module to Cree, and how he feels about her joining the Teen Ninjas. Just what does Numbuh 274 think of this traitor, being one himself? A look inside the minds of two operatives who forsook childhood itself. (Follows Opertaion S.L.U.M.B.E.R.) Cover image: edorazzi


**This idea sprung up completely on the spot, based on an epic fan art (credit to artist, whose name I am too lazy to look up, and whose creation I am making the cover image) that had me wonder how Chad might answer a question like that. Back when Kids Next Door was airing, I was totally a Numbuh 1 fanboy, but when I grew a bit and realized that Numbuh 274 was way cooler, I fell behind him, and he remains to this day my favorite KND operative. I'm glad I found this art, because writing this reminded me how much I love him, and characters like him.**

 **It's a quick little story, and it hasn't been edited very much, one day I'll get good about doing that.**

 **I don't own KND, because if I did, I would definitely make sure G:KND became a series. Seriously, if it just so happens that anyone from Cartoon Network or the team behind Kids Next Door is reading that, make it happen. Please. Like...you would make my year.**

 **Anyways...enjoy! Kids Next Door Rules!**

* * *

Numbuh 12 approached from the shadows of the street, looking over her shoulder as something went bump in the night.

"H-Hello?"

She wandered a little further towards the convenience store, the foreign beacon of light that smelled of maturity. She was supposed to meet them here, and if they didn't show up, the Kids Next Door would surely find her. She didn't want to think about what might happen then. The stupid teen ninjas couldn't trust her for putting herself out there like that? She briefly wondered if Numbuh 11, or rather, Cree Lincoln, had felt that same distrust upon betraying the Kids Next Door.

"Hello?" She tried again, then raised her voice hotly, "Is anyone here!?"

"You don't have to shout," A voice from within the darkness advised.

She jumped and turned to find Numbuh 274 emerging from the back of the store and into the light of the nearest street lamp. But then, he wasn't a KND operative anymore either. He was another smart one who left before they could erase everything he was. Decommissioning was the cruelest of punishments, and completely unjust. Nobody could control growing up. What right did kids younger than you have to strip away your entire life's fight against tyranny?

Better to be a tyrant than let that all fall. No question about it.

"You scared me," she admitted with a smile.

He didn't look so amused, but he did give her the once over. Inspecting her. Analyzing how she was handling the life of an AWOL operative. She smiled all the more, and finally he spoke.

"You did good with getting Cree the code module, but it takes more than that to nab a spot in the Teen Ninjas."

"So...you'd say you were proud of me then?" She asked, moving a little closer and giving up on the tough approach.

"Proud? Ha! Don't flatter yourself, it was good. That's all."

That one hurt.

She had harbored two great loves in her time with the Kids Next Door. First and foremost she was glad to battle teenagers, adults, and likewise tyranny. Secondly, and more deeply hidden, she was quite fond of Numbuh 274. What girl who was coming of age wasn't? He was the definition of cool, and success came to him like...like fragrance on a rose.

"Rose! Keep up," Chad called as he began heading back into the shadows.

The girl once known as Numbuh 12 hurried after him. It would be odd to be called by her name again, after being called that stupid number for so long.

Apparently, Chad had better vision than she did, because she had already almost lost him behind the store, where the lightbulb was shattered and the street lamps did not reach. He may have memorized the way to wherever they were going, it was common knowledge among those turning 13 sooner rather than later that convenience store parking lots were often entrances to something bigger. She always imagined teenagers plotting against the kids above, like villains in a cave.

"Let's go!" He called, and she scrambled to his side beside the dumpster of the clothing store across the lane.

"What are we going here? Aren't...aren't convenience stores the Teen bases?"

"Been doing your homework on the Teen Ninjas, huh? Well, you don't have to worry about entering any bases just yet."

He pushed the dumpster door open and the floor opened up beneath them, sucking them down into a tunnel of rushing air. She screamed, first in shock, then in enjoyment. He stayed quiet, but gave her noticeable look of disdain when they landed, and she immediately cleared her throat and played with the bracelet on her wrist. He rolled his eyes and flicked on a single set of lights.

The dark room they were currently in got slightly brighter, and she could now see a chair and a shelf with many boxes on it, sitting alone in the center of this shadow-filled place. Anything that may have been beyond that, she was still blind to.

"Go sit down."

"Okay."

Her footsteps echoed in the cold, roomy underground. He remained motionless all the while. Try as she might, whatever was behind the chair, which faced the entrance, she could not see through the layer of dark. Maybe she never would? As much as she hated to admit it, this reception was far less welcoming than the one she got when she joined the Kids Next Door.

As soon as her bottom touched the wood and her arms were resting on the arms, cords slung out of nowhere and bound her in place. She squirmed and wretched herself away to the best of her ability, but she was trapped without a chance of denying it.

"Hey! What's going on!? Help!"

"Relax!" Chad called out from the limitless darkness around her, and she still refused to totally give up the fight as she noticed that he, too, had slipped into the shadows.

"I...I don't...I don't like this! Why is this happening!?"

"I said relax. Nothing bad is going to happen if you cooperate…"

She distinctly heard him mutter something else, definitely the word stupid, and she resisted the urge to try and escape fully now. It was still very dark, and now that she had given in, it was also very quiet, until the sound of a keyboard chirping in the distance caught her ears.

She wanted to ask what he was going now, but thought better of it and waited instead. Soon enough a new voice entered the fray, digitized and hollowed out by the computer. It was unrecognizable to her, but she may not have known the voice's owner even before it was cloaked in technological distortion.

"Well?" It asked.

"She showed," Chad answered.

"Good. This is becoming quite the nice trend of betrayal. You didn't invent the trick, of course, but after you….Numbuhs 16, 39, and 404….and now 12. Excellent indeed."

Rose recalled all those faces to mind. She was younger than them all, but not by long. They too were wise, then, and broke out of the shackles of the KND before everything was taken from them. They too had learned from the best, just as the voice said.

"Whatever," Chad answered cooly. How long had it been since he left? 9 months? A year? He was already such a teenager...she straightened herself up and waited patiently as their conversation went on.

"I don't expect anything troublesome with Rose here. Do you?"

Her ears sharpened up even more now.

"..." He didn't answer verbally, and she couldn't tell if they could see each others' faces on the screen. She thought she saw him glance at her, but regardless, the voice went on.

"Proceed. After you're finished, Jared will take her to the next step. I will advise when he is finished with her."

"Understood."

He began to approach her as she shook her wonderings of just who exactly this 'Jared' was, and whether she would be glad to be in his company. She doubted it.

"So...now you have to tell me something," Chad told her as he came into view fully, exposing himself in the lighted ring with her. He too had a chair, and he set it down to face her.

"What do you want to know?"

She noticed his chair didn't spring wires from the back when he sat down.

"Well, as I said, you did good. Not great...but not poorly. So how badly do you want this?"

"How badly do I want…?"

"This."

The lights came on all at once, and she looked behind herself, blinking as her pupils contracted to shut out the sudden and excessive light. Her mouth was agape and her eyes struggled to take everything in.

"How badly do you want to be apart of this? How much do you hate the snot-nosed little punks that wanted to decommission you and take your memory away like an ice cream cone melted on a hot day?"

Kids everywhere. Kids in cages. Cells. Chains. Kids strung up over tubs of water. Kids glued to each other and standing on a platform on top of a long fall down. Kids gliding along wildly and helplessly on a swing-set that wasn't going to stop for a long time. Kids everywhere, looking at her with something awful. Looking to her with fresh hope. She recognized some of them. Others were total strangers. But the ones she knew, knew her as Numbuh 12. And all their eyes caught hers instantly.

But none of them dared to speak to her. The glass separating them from her was thin, but they couldn't hear anything she and Chad had been saying.

"So? How much do you hate brats like these?" He asked her again.

"W-wh...what...I…."

"Oh come on. It shouldn't be hard. See that kid dangling over the water tank?"

That particular operative, whom she did not recognize, was lowered into the water for effect and crying and screaming as he went down. She wanted desperately not to, but her eyes betrayed her and wetted themselves against her will. She...didn't want….to cry for this. She didn't want this.

"He's on the Decommissioning Squad. He was going to track you down on your thirteenth birthday...and make all your time in the Kids Next Door a ghost of a dream."

At last the operative was raised up, and gasped at the air. For all her time in this game, Numbuh 12 had rarely seen anything so cruel.

"I…..I….."

"You know what you know. You know what your heart is telling you."

"I...don't…"

"You do. You know brats like him aren't worth the space or air until they turn 13. Until they grow up. Like you and me."

Like him.

"So I'll ask one more time. How badly do you want this?"

Grown up...like Chad.

She eyed the Decommissioning Squad operative, and as they looked at each other, the boy's hope evaporated…..like an ice cream cone….on a hot summer's day. And it spread. Like chicken pox, it transferred from one kid to the next. Hope fading and dwindling away. She was no longer Numbuh 12, they realized.

Her tears were coming on slower. She didn't want to look at them any more, so she turned back towards Chad.

"What do want from me?"

"You had a good start. But it's time to prove your determination. Don't you just hate those kids there? All kids make the lives of teenagers and adults harder, right?"

She thought about it, and she realized how much sense was making right now. She'd feel a lot better if they weren't here. She really wished they could be alone right now.

"Yeah…."

"So, I got a welcome aboard present for you."

Out of another chute fell a Kids Next Door operative she did not know, a large number '702' painted on the badge of his helmet, which was once a fan cage. He was stricken with fear.

"Shucks," Chad said with sarcasm dripping from the words, "He doesn't look very comfortable. I bet I left before he even joined the Kids Next Door. Maybe you should make him feel….more at home."

She caught the meaning right away, and looked at him as he began to fight the petrification of terror. The wires let her free, and she practically jumped out of the chair. Chad moved them both away and the shelves became more noticeable now. The boxes were just begging to be opened.

He was unarmed, and crying. How many operatives this young expect to be in a situation like this? Then again, what did it really matter to her? It...it didn't. To their right, a door she hadn't previously noticed opened, and suddenly the atmosphere of pain and suffering wafted into the room.

"Please...please don't….I wanna see my mommy!" The boy whimpered.

"So, what's it gonna be then?" Chad asked, smiling for the first time she could remember with clarity.

"Please...no!"

Rose hesitated briefly, and felt out of body for the first time in her life. Was this what it meant? Was this the cost? Is this where it was all going to lead anyways? Did anything matter anymore except this? So many questions she wanted to answer...but none more so than his.

"Come on," She told the boy with a very un-reassuring smile.

"No! No! NOOOO!"

"Take this," Chad told her, throwing her one of the boxes on the shelf. She smiled when she caught it.

Rose grabbed the boy by the hand and dragged him through the door, while Chad lingered behind. He had to make a report.

Stepping back to the console on the wall, he clicked open the communication link.

"She passed," He notified, his tone as nonchalant and gruff as he liked it to be.

"Good. Very good. Jared is on his way now."

"The sooner the better," Chad added.

"Don't give me that, now. In fact….I think I might just stick her with you. She might pick up her role faster working with you."

"I don't want her."

"But I don't really care what you want, Chad."

The blonde boy frowned and glowered at the screen, almost wishing the figure on the other side could see him. Still, he didn't say anything about it.

"Fine. Whatever. Are you at least going to stick me on a mission remotely interesting?"

"Hmmmm….well, you are just so good at this….hmph."

His agitation was being eaten up, and the voice on the other side knew. It always knew. He exhaled with some attitude, and it finally gave its answer.

"No. Your skills will ultimately go to waste doing these missions for too long. I want you to meet someone tomorrow night. The gym. 8 o'clock. Don't be even a minute late."

The transmission was ended abruptly, but Chad was only going to give his acknowledgement of hearing the order. There was no chance he'd dare miss this.

He turned his attention back to the glass, or rather, what was happening behind it. Numbuh 702 was being bound together, his arms and legs hopelessly prone as he hung from the platform attached to the ceiling, by his underwear no less. Rose looked back up at him, smiling. He didn't do anything, so she hurried back to his side.

As she came back up to where he was, he cued the lights to go out, and the helpless children were in darkness again. How long until the next teen came along to test the resolve of another would-be Teen Ninja? Did it matter?

"Chad! Chad!"

He turned to her, half annoyed as he usually made himself out to be, half smiling a very small nod of approval.

"Aren't you proud of me? Aren't you proud of me now?"

He ruffled her hair and moved her forwards.

"You did…...good."

She slumped her shoulders down and Chad motioned her forwards.

"Go back up. Jared should be arriving any minute."

She gave him one last look. One last trying gaze, but he held his cold detachment, and she sulked forward. She whizzed up the chute and out of sight, and Numbuh 274 looked back at all the kids, frowning.

"Not today guys...I'm sorry."

He knew they couldn't hear him. They really didn't need to. He was so constricted nowadays. Growing up was tough to everyone, especially operatives in his role.

He had to once more supress the urge to flip those lights on, march into that torture chamber of monstrosity, and free each and every one of those operatives. He almost did. Almost.

"It's all for the greater good. The best way you can help the Kids Next Door...and the Others, is to play the role of the villain. For now."

Infinity always said something like that.

But right now, the only words that burned inside him more where the pathetic pleas of the girl who was once called Numbuh 12.

"Aren't you proud of me?"

Tsk. Stupid question...stupid, lousy question...

"Aren't you _proud_ of me?"

How could he be proud of anything he did anymore? There was nothing comparable to pride in watching helpless operatives meet grim imprisonments while he roamed free, causing other operatives harm to make his cover story more believable.

There was nothing remotely honorable about being a symbol of betrayal. The numbers 274 used to mean something to the KND. They still did, but now, they meant something entirely different. He did not like the change. He cursed the factors that soiled those numbers.

So no. He wasn't proud in the slightest. The good ones were so few and far between.

Numbuh 9. But then, Maurice was just like him. Sure, they gave each other silent winks here and there, a behind the back thumbs up when they could, but he knew. He knew Maurice's hands were as dirty as his own; there was once great honor in them both, but 9 was just as bad as 274, if you asked him.

Numbuh 100.

Heh….he was an operative, and a leader, to be proud of. But now? Not anymore he wasn't. Chad didn't know what "The Steve" was.

Numbuh 362…

Being Supreme Leader changes an operative. She'd find out sooner or later, just like he did. He wished her the best all the same.

Maybe the only truly good operatives left were Nigel and Sector V. Just maybe.

Maybe there was no such thing as a decent operative anymore. They were all like Rose. They'd trade away everything they worked years for in a heartbeat. Some of them wanted more power. Some wanted to fit in again. Some, like her, wanted unrequited love.

And then there were the oddballs like him. Probably the smallest group. The ones who wanted good to come out of it. If anyone found much good that came out of living like this, he wanted to know. He couldn't honestly see much good come out of his actions. Not yet at least. The promises of it getting better, easier with time, were not comforting now.

So as he walked away and left the operatives in the dark behind him crying, afraid, and with a daily-growing hatred for teenage traitors like Numbuh 12 and Numbuh 274, he reflected on those very bitter words a final time.

"Aren't you proud of me?"

No, Rose. No. I'm not proud of you.

And I'm not proud of myself either.


End file.
